Thursday, February 25, 2016

Air Force Academy Funds Witchcraft, Wicca Worship

The watchdog organization Judicial Watch just released documents revealing the Air Force Academy used a chapel fund in 2014 to underwrite attendance at a pagan earth worship festival where cadets were taught to “dance with ecstasy around the maypole,” “drum with the heartbeat of Mother Earth,” and “conjure Springtime within nature and yourself.”

“The Air Force Academy leadership is attacking traditional Christian beliefs but will fund witchcraft and ‘faery magick’? These records show the misplaced priorities in the Air Force and why traditional Christians increasingly feel unwelcome in the Air Force Academy.”-- Tom Fitton, President, Judicial Watch

The academy’s chapel funds spent hundreds of dollars to send four cadets to the annual Denver Witches Ball, the city’s “Premier Pagan Halloween Masquerade Ball,” as well as two cadets’ participation in the Beltania Festival. The festival is an annual Colorado earth worship gathering that welcomes pagans of all stripes, including “Wicca, Witchcraft, Faery Magick, Druidism, Heathenism, Native American traditions, Voodoo, African Orishas, and Goddess Spirituality.” Attendees gather to run ribbons around a pole.

The event has played host to cadets for the last several years. Organizers advertised a brand new ceremony honoring servicemen in 2014 and touted the presence of “two representatives” from the academy’s pagan clubs.

Chapel fund money was also used to pay for four cadets to attend the 2014 Denver Witches Ball, according to Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch obtained the documents through an October freedom of information request into earth worship activities on campus. . . .

A group called “Spiritual Programs in Religious Education” hosted events at an area of the Air Force Academy designated for worship in traditions that include “Wicca, Paganism and Druidism,” reported Judicial Watch. The Academy took $260 from the Academy’s “Church Tithes and Offerings Fund” to pay a vendor called “Living Earth” that hosted a Wiccan festival on campus in March, 2014.

The “Spiritual Programs in Religious Education” group that hosted events on campus encouraged people to engage in Wicca, witchcraft, Faery Magick and voodoo, according to a brochure obtained by the Freedom of Information Act documents requested by Judicial Watch.

The Tithes and Offering Fund, though funded by "free-will donations," is also defined as "an instrumentality of the United States Government."

According to a promotional brochure obtained by Judicial Watch, a group called "Spiritual Programs in Religious Education" hosted events at the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle on the Academy campus. The Academy website describes Falcon Circle as "The worship area [for]… an umbrella of traditions that includes Wicca, Paganism and Druidism."

The Air Force Academy documents were obtained in response to an October 8, 2015, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for:

Any and all records regarding, concerning or relating to "Earth-based" worship service events occurring at the [Air Force Academy] campus in the 2013/14 academic years, including but not limited to, programs, hand-outs, proposals, agreements, contracts, invoices, budget documents, and related materials.